Today was the start of our game viewing adventures in Kruger National Park. We left Graskop early morning and arrived in Kruger around 10:30 a.m. We then slowly made our way to our rest camp Satara, while watching for and stopping to view wildlife along the way. We saw elephants, baboons, zebra, wildebeest, kudu, impala (both of which are antelope), giraffes, hippo and crocodiles - all on the way to our rest camp before we had even officially begun our game drive!
Kruger is larger than the state of Israel and provides a protected nature preserve for the wildlife in the area. In Kruger the humans are the ones fenced in, the animals roam freely. Thus each rest camp is completely enclosed and are the only places for people to stay and to get out of their vehicles. Once you leave the camp either with a guide or in your own car you are not allowed on foot.
After arriving at our camp we almost immediately turned around and got on a large open air truck for our first game drive. This was not the ideal time of day for animal watching as it was hot and most of the animals would be resting in the shade. However we lucked upon a herd of elephants which we ended up watching for almost half an hour. There were mothers and babies and juveniles and as we watched they came closer and closer to us until they were only about 15 feet away. We were able to watch as they ate grass and used their trunks to pull leaves and branches off shrubs which they also ate.
Later on we saw giraffes, a buffalo, baboons, lots of beautiful birds including an African fish eagle and antelope including a magnificent water buck, kudu and impalas.
At our request our guide drove us to see the famous baobab tree, an ancient tree that lives up to thousands of years and looks like someone uprooted it and planted it upside down.
On our way back the sun was setting and we were able to get some beautiful sunset views. We then searched for the nocturnal animals and were lucky enough to see a pack of spotted hyena up close including a baby, and a black-backed jackal as well as an African wild cat.
We stopped for a few minutes with lights off to look up at the night sky. The sky was brilliant with billions of stars and our guide pointed out the Southern Cross and the Milky Way. Tomorrow night when we have our bush braai he has promised a more extensive astronomy lesson.
Tomorrow we leave at 5:45 a.m. for an early morning game drive and our best chance to spot the big cats. Wish us luck!!
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